• Vim is not a code beautifier.
• Vim is not a compiler.
• Vim is not a ftp client.
• Vim is not a mailer.
• Vim is not a newsreader.
• Vim is not a print program.
• Vim is not a shell.
• Vim is not a spell checker.
• Vim is not a web browser.
• Vim is not a word processor.
• Vim is not an operating system.
• Vim is not another Emacs.

:ver
VIM - Vi IMproved 6.66 [WinLinux] (1999 Apr 01, compiled Apr  6 1999 12:07:00)
-babel -c64-linux -do-what-i-mean -emacs -gindent -kitchen-sink -lisp-decoder
-mud-frontend -netscape-explorer -not-so-regular-expressions -print-anywhere
-shell-o-rama -swahili-compiler -tea-hot-earl-grey -windows2000 -write-my-thesis

• Auto-load of Changed Files
• File Locking Improvements
• Folding
• Project Editing
• Remote Editing
• Toolbar
• Vertical Split
• Vi Style Command Line Editing

For more info download the latest documentation ("runtime archive") and look at "todo.txt" or by entering the command :help extensions-improvements

Bram says about the vim-6 alpha versions:

Lots of things are not working yet.
Check ":help todo" for known items.

I NEED YOUR HELP: There is still a lot of work to be done.
If I have to do it all by myself it will take a very long
time until Vim.6.0 is ready.  Please give a hand by
implementing one of the items in the todo list.

Unicode support is planned for Vim version 6.0.  In Vim 5.x there is
double-byte support, which can be used for encodings that have a font
with double-width characters.  Thus the current multi-byte support
is rather limited and doesn't work for Unicode yet.

Here are some features/reasons why I have recommended to upgrade to the latest version:

vim-5.6 [TODO]

Still looking for contributions. Please send them to me at guckes@vim.org

vim-5.5 [TODO]

Still looking for contributions. Please send them to me at guckes@vim.org

vim-5.4 [still an alpha/developer version!]

*Some* of the new features of Vim-5.4:

- Port to the GTK+ GUI.
- A version-specific runtime directory has been introduced.  This makes it
  easier to upgrade to a newer version, or run two versions at the same time.
- Recognizing file types and syntax highlighting has been separated.
  This allows you to add your own file type specific items.
  And syntax highlighting is more flexible.
- Now includes syntax highlighting for about 150 file types.
- Vim scripts have been improved: Line continuation with a backslash, more
  functions, etc.
- The hit-return prompt is avoided by truncating messages.  A message history
  has been added to view previous (untruncated) messages.
- Support for encryption of files.
- Quickfix support extended to support more error formats, including
  multi-line error messages and change-directory messages.
- A number of useful commands and options added.
- Many improvements for existing commands.

- Console Mode Menus [vim-5.4e]:
  List expansions of current parameter on command line
  in the status line and allow sequential selection.
  (New option 'wildmenu' and new command ':emenu'.)

  - New option "write":  Diables *all* writing of files (incl ":w!").
  - New register for "last used searchpattern ("/).
  - ":bd" -> jump to last used window. (halleluja!)
  - Mapping for creating a diff window
  - Support for Linux console mouse
    	- Support for GTK GUI
  - X: input method for multi-byte characters.
    Hangul (Korean) Input Mode (and documentation).
  - New commands:
    - "g?" for rotating text in ROT13 (also an operator).
    - "zH" and "zL" to scroll window horizontally by half a page.
    - "gm" move cursor to middle of screen line.
    - Operations on Visual blocks:
      "I", "A", "c", "C", "r", "<" and ">".
  - Startup:  vim called as "ex -" now reads commands
    from stdin and works in silent mode
  - Unix: Included the name of the user that compiled Vim and
    the system name it was compiled on in the version message.
  - GUI: Automated numbering of Syntax menu entries in menu.vim.
  - GUI: Clipboard support when using the mouse in an xterm.
  - GUI (Motif): Popup menu.

Functions

vim-5.3 now offers "functions" (see ":help :functions").

VIM now does dishes, too! :-) [980826,990712]

http://www.multimania.com/phic/vim/vim_putz.html

http://altern.org/phica/vim/vim_putz.html [old]

vim-5.2f [980629]

Extra commands: "gJ" joins lines without adding spaces.

Regular expressions: You can now use "\d" to abbreviate a digit.

Example: Searching for 19\d\d should now find (year) numbers like "1963", "1967", and "1994".

vim-5.0g - "strftime"

The internal function "strftime" gives the current date and time. This allows to easily insert these data in the cureent buffer without having to use an external command. Example: iab Ydate <C-R>=strftime("%y%m%d")<CR> " Example: 971027 " iab Ytime <C-R>=strftime("%H:%M")<CR> " Example: 14:28 " iab YDT <C-R>=strftime("%y%m%d %T")<CR> " Example: 971027 12:00:00 " iab YDATE <C-R>=strftime("%a %b %d %T %Z %Y")<CR> " Example: Tue Dec 16 12:07:00 CET 1997 "

The port to MacOS definitely needs some help. The developers lack a current version of the CodeWarrier compiler, and the testers are just a few.

But we also get requests now and then for a port to WindowsCE. Here are the volunteers for the port so far:

	991126 Name???          ahaack@bigfoot.com
        990830 Kenneth Schwartz kens@avs.com

Thanks to everybody who offered help! :-)

000722: I have removed the name of someone who apparently received mail from a person who obviously thought that "XY support" means that he is offering support for some special feature. However, this is not true. The people here only *offered* their help at some point. That's all.

=== Code for special features (eg GUI)

Translators for messages (PO files):
010712	Russian:	Paul S. Romanchenko	vim@justnews.ru

Windows install.exe:
010712	Jonathon Merz		jmerz42@earthlink.net
010712	Walter Briscoe		wbriscoe@ponle.demon.co.uk

Folding:
980918	David C. Jr. Harrsion	dharriso@pigseye.kennesaw.edu (offer)

Vertical split:
990115	Pjotr Kourzanoff	pjotr@IS.TWI.TUDelft.NL (offer)

=== Code for special features (eg GUI) and support for other programs

DDE support:
	Heiko Erhardt		Heiko.Erhardt@munich.netsurf.de

Developer Studio integration:
	Chris McKillop		cdmckill@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
	Paul Moore		Paul.Moore@uk.origin-it.com

GTK+ support:
981217	Marcin Dalecki		dalecki@cs.net.pl
981217	Andy Kahn		kahn@zk3.dev.com
Wished for by:
980915	Sung-Hyun Nam		namsh@lgic.co.kr
981110	Mitsuo Tsukamoto	tsuka@alpha.net.ph

Japanese support:
981129	Marc Espie		Marc.Espie@liafa.jussieu.fr (offer)
990225	Takuhiro Nishioka	takuhiro@super.win.ne.jp (testing?)

KVim - Vim for KDE
000921	Thomas Capricelli	capricel@yalbi.com
	http://aquila.rezel.enst.fr/thomas/vim/

POVRay and LCC's Wedit:
990123	Bob and Kelly Crispen	crispen@hiwaay.net
	offered to help integrating Vim as an editor these programs

Spell Checking support:
980526	Pancrazio `Ezio' de Mauro	pdm@datanord.it

Unicode UTF-8 support:
980715	Ron Aaron		ron@mossbayeng.com

=== Binary Maintenance

990206	Josh Howard		jrh@kashmir.vicor-nb.com
may provide vim binaries for FreeBSD, ie FreeBSD 2.2.8,
FreeBSD 3.0-RELEASE and FreeBSD 4.0-CURRENT - with and without X.

=== Documentation

Vim and Python:
Vim and Rebol:
990225	Timothy Johnson		tjohnson@akcache.com


=== Operating System Ports

Amiga:
970911	Michael Nielsen		mni@dde.dk
	will help developing the GUI

Atari:
	Jens M. Felderhoff	jmf@infko.uni-koblenz.de

Interix:
990217	John McMullen		john_mcmullen@interix.com
	[Intel Interix2.2 Service Pack 1 system]
	changes to makefile; ctags didn't compile.

Macintosh:
980123	Dany St-Amant		dany.stamant@sympatico.ca
	much work on the MacOS port.  Anyone have an up-to-date
	version of CodeWarrior to help him doing this?
	(See also the page on Vim on MacOS

See the distribution page for a list of sites that offer Vim.

The developers versions now reside in the subdirectory unreleased to clearly prevent casual users from using them. Also, for the "unreleased" versions there will be no binaries (esp no binaries for DOS or Windows), so you will have to "roll your own binary". Please do not distribute any binaries of unreleased versions, thankyou!

Beta versions of Vim can be found on the mirror sites in subdirectory beta-test. Even casual users are asked to test these versions, but you should still bear in mind that it is usually better to use a released version for the serious data - just in case. ;-)

PRO S-Lang
• Rapid prototyping. New functionality can be implemented using S-Lang first, and integrated later in C if necessary (speed, "information hiding"). This is easy because S-Lang looks like C.
• Development speedup. The development of the current built-in evaluation language can be sped up as S-Lang gives much more functionality that would have to be developed step-by-step still. (Hey, Robert - "arrays"! :-)
• Functional language. S-Lang is a functional language which makes it easier for most non-expert to write additions and/or to make changes to existing code. It also reduces the amount of time spent for debugging strange expressions.
• Wealth of Existing code. S-Lang is already used with several successful program, most notably with the author's editor (jed) and the author's newsreader slrn; and the mailer mutt can make use of it, too. This means that a wide range of users can make use of the already existing wealth of functions that have already been written for Slang.
• Import/export. S-Lang can be used in both directions: the first is to export the functionality of VIM (eg. Get/SetCursorPosition, inserting of character or strings, setting of the fore- and background colours) to be used in scripts. The other one is the use of "hooks" which are called for certain events (eg. for opening/closing a file, in case of errors). This allows for a very flexible approach to some kind of "event handling" mechanisms which can be put to use with syntax coloring.
• Easy integration. S-Lang is very easy to integrate. The basic inclusion of the interpreter is about 5 lines of code. The size of the whole interpreter library (slang.lib) for the windows95 Watcom 10.6 compiler is 240K. The export of VIM internal functions can be an evolutionary process.
• Byte-compiler = fast startup. S-Lang code can be byte-compiled. This speeds up the loading process of the functions. In addition, functions which are not neccesary during the startup of VIM can be registered to be loaded later (this is actually done automatically by the S-Lang interpreter).
• Creation of a "VIM library". Functions can be put into modules which a user can choose from. It is even possible in the next version of S-Lang to load binaries (= DLL's, modules) during runtime to enhance VIM. Examples are an pop3/imap mail interface for reading, writing and managing mails, or even CORBA to interface VIM with other CORBA-aware applications.
• Support for DOS, Windows, OS/2, and BeOS (MacOS is in the works). S-Lang has been ported to Windows with the exception of a few bios interrupts that Windows doesn't allow, a DOS dpmi app is perfectly happy running as a Windows console app, or a DOS box. From the S-Lang site at ftp://space.mit.edu/pub/davis/slang/README "S-Lang has been successfully compiled and tested on many platforms and OSs (Unix/VMS/PC-MSDOS/OS2). Building the S-Lang library requires a C compiler that understands function prototypes. On SunOS, you will need gcc."
• Text dialogs and menus. Dialogs and menus on terminals is what many users want.

CONTRA S-Lang
• Do we really need another scripting language?
• Implementation of new features in S-Lang might be sufficient for most people, thus hampering the implementation of solutions within C.
• By moving the implementation of functionality to a scripting language and allowing everybody to exchange functional modules there is no "central authority" for releasing the one true version of VIM, right?
• Someone has to work in the hooks for S-Lang into the code.

S-Lang HomePage

http://www.s-lang.org/

http://space.mit.edu/~davis/jed.html)

The workaround

• Select the message with the mouse.
• Copy the selected text to the clipboard (CTRL-C).
• Make sure that the option "guiclipboard" contains the flag 'a':

  	:set go+=a
  

• Import the text from the clipboard using the register '*', ie paste it into the current buffer with the command "*p.
• Edit the text.
• Copy the edited text into the clipboard, eg with :%"*y. (untested)
• Use CTRL-V to paste the text from the clipboard into the application.

PRO CORBA
• Integration with other programs as an editor-of-choice.

CONTRA CORBA
• Yet more code. -> Bloat!
• Let other programs add the support to specify an editor-of-coice.
• Focus on code for "terminal editing" - not on support for other programs.
• The CORBA FAQ says that "Some applications, such as word processing, might not benefit from distribution at all."
• Requires specification of CORBA interface.
• Requires to split Vim into components - and splitting away the syntax coloring is very difficult. Each component then has to work before you can use it. break one component and you'll lose everything on top of it. Separating Vim into components also means that you need to copy every component along to make it work. Forget about the "Vim fits on a floppy" then.
• Definition of interfaces often change which makes Vim more dependant to these changes. More work will then have to be put on those.
• You use CORBA when the components are spread acorss the network - does anyone want to "spread Vim's parts" around?
• Components are no guarantee that the resulting programs are small (see Micro$soft Office).
• There is no standard for "editor" components so far, anyway.

• Creation of a Vim ORB is required to allow Vim as an object for their applications.

• Vim+CORBAR requires Vim to become an ORB. Code for this costs money. Will Vim then be freely available still?

SEE ALSO:
• http://www.aurora-tech.com/CORBA-FAQ.htm
• MICO ("MICO Is CORBA") http://www.mico.org
• TAO http://siesta.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/
• .. http://galaxy.uci.agh.edu.pl/~vahe/CORBA.htm
• .. http://adams.patriot.net/~tvalesky/freecorba.html
• .. http://www.uk.research.att.com/omniORB/

I know X11 applications are supposed to use resources, but I happen not
to like them.  I would greatly appreciate putting in some effort to
avoid having to use them.  A Vim user will be much happier when he can
do all settings for Vim in his vimrc file, instead of having to learn to
use resource files (I know I never fully understood them, can you
imagine what trouble a normal user would run into?).

Using Netscape as an example: I tried adding support for a scroll mouse
by editing the resource file.  Even with directions from other users
it's still not working in more than the main window.  Editing that
_huge_ resource file feels more like programming to me anyway.  I
wouldn't want to have end users having to understand resource files.

URL:         http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/deve.html
URL:         http://www.vim.org/deve.html (mirror)
Created:     Wed Nov  1 00:00:00 MET 1995